5' x 8' Chinese Hereke Rug | Silk | Burgundy and Black

This rug measures 5' x 8', is knotted entirely in silk and was woven in China to a Hereke design, the finely drawn medallion pattern associated with the Turkish court workshops. At a glance it reads as a very dark rectangular field carrying a single starburst medallion in turquoise, with a deep teal border of gold arabesques around it. The silk carries light unevenly across the pile, so the field looks close to black from one end and dark red from the other.

Design

The field is filled edge to edge with small serrated blossoms and thin curling vines, drawn at a scale that takes close looking to resolve. At the centre sits a twelve-petal medallion, each petal filled with its own scrolling arabesque and the alternating petals set light against dark, with a small many-lobed rosette at the middle in orange, pink and cream. Large scrolled cartouche brackets close the field top and bottom, and broad paisley-shaped spandrels lie at the four corners. The main border runs a continuous gold vine over dark teal, punctuated by bouquets of pink and green flowers, with narrow rose and ivory guard stripes on either side. A small woven cartouche sits in the pale end border above the fringe.

Colour

The ground is black, and the floral tracery over it is worked in burgundy shading up to a dusty rose at the tips of the petals, which is what gives the field its wine cast in raking light. Against that, the medallion and spandrels carry light blue and deep peacock blue with orange scrollwork on top, the sharpest colour contrast in the rug. The borders sit on a dark teal that keeps its relation to the black of the field, while green appears only in the leaves of the border bouquets, alongside pink, ivory and gold.

Making

It is hand-knotted with a pile of silk on a fine foundation, close enough in gauge to hold the hairline vines of the field and the outlined petals of the medallion without breaking them into steps. The reverse, visible in the folded-back corner, shows the pattern repeated knot for knot. The silk fringe is long and undipped at both ends. The rug is new and in perfect condition.